As part of our most recent updates we have been working towards keeping networks Spam free. While we have tried a range of Captcha Methods, these methods do not keep out 100% of the spammers.

We have added a new layer of protection that checks content added by members for spam characteristics. When this is detected the offending member account will be flagged as a Spam account account and their access restricted.

New Trusted accounts
We do understand and are aware that some accounts will get flagged by mistake. Thus we have a new account type called Trusted. You can flag any member account that has been marked a spammer as a trusted member.

We know its been awhile since our last major update. But we do have a few new updates in progress that will be released very soon (End of the Month)!

The new updates include;

New Member and Group Profile system. We plan to give the site administrator more control over how profiles and groups work and are laid out.

Pay your members for referring subscribers. As an ad on to the current member subscription system you will be able to pay your members for referrals! This feature we hope will help sites drive more paying members.

Today we are pleased to announce we have released our newest feature "Social Store". The social store was conceived as a shopping cart solution but with one main difference. The ability for you to allow your website members to add and sell items. This feature expands the monetization opportunities for website owners and Spruz is proud to be the only social website platform to offer this type of feature. While there are many ecommerce solutions available on the internet, there is a lack of shopping systems where members of the site have the ability to sell or list items.

Top Features Include;

Allow you and your members to sell items via the Store

You decide if just you or your members can add and sell items direct from your websites. Set options to approve items added for additional level of control over your store.

Use the Social Store as a shopping cart, classifieds or e-delivery platform

With customizable options you can configure your store to as a place to sell items, ebooks or as a classifieds. Turn on and off payment options, item styles, e-delivery, location, stock number, etc in the settings area for this feature.

Customize Categories

Similar to the video, blog, discussions and other features, you can customize your categories and sub categories for items listed in your social store!

Geo Location Based Searching

By using the Advanced Social Store Search element you can allow buyers to search your store based on location.

Integrated with PayPal, store tracks payments as they post. Making it easy for buyers and sellers to keep track of purchases

The system uses PayPal for all payment processing, this allows your member to customize there own shipping and payment features. Paypal makes it easy to keep track of customer and their information.

This new feature is free for everyone to use and carries no additional fees. However we have restricted the number of items you can have in the store based on your plan. 10 items on free, 50 on our starter plan, 500 for plus customers and Unlimited on the unlimited plan.

To add this new feature on your site go to Manage Site > Your Site > Add Page or Feature and select Social Store from the list!

Like any new feature there will be bugs and issues, it is very important to report problems you may encounter via support ticket. DO NOT POST issues in comments!

We hope this new feature will bring added value to your website. This feature will be expanded upon over the coming months based on the needs of users like you so feel free to provide us with your feedback! Enjoy!

We have applied an new update today that adds 2 new elements and adds a new feature to the member subscription module.

New Discussion Preview Element
This element displays information from the discussion system. Thus you can offer a sneak peek to your members of topics recently created within the discussion feature.

Advanced Member Search Element
We have expanded the search features for members to include GEO Location based searching via our new Advanced Member Search. This element can be added to any page and allows people to search for members that have been GEO Tagged. Thus it is now possible to search for members based on distance. This feature will only display members that have been geo tagged. Current members will need to update their location to show up for GEO based searching.

One Time Member Subscription Payments
If you are taking advantage of our Member Subscription Module we have now added a new payment option. This option allows you to set a onetime fee for your sites subscription.

A Sneak Peak at what is in Development Now:

New Social Store! This feature will allow you and your members to post items for sale.

Features will include;

Allow anyone to sell goods, and services via your website

Secure E-Delivery Features (Great for Songs, EBooks, Etc)

Deep Category Support using our Standardized Category System

Payments processed by Paypal with Google Checkout Options coming in the future

Control the field options for items posted (Add/Remove fields such as Payment, Delivery Method, Weight, Etc.)

Geo location Searching! Making it easy for buyers to find sellers close to them!

Very flexible system, will be adaptable to use as a Store or Classifieds.

This feature is expected to be completed by the end of this month!

We want to remind you that like all updates there may be problems or issues. DO NOT POST ISSUES IN COMMENTS. Please open a support request to report the issue so it may be addressed promptly.

We have recently an update to your website that adds a few improvements.

Category Sorting - Next time you manage your category lists for discussions, blogs, etc you will notice a double arrow icon that by clicking on holding will allow you to re-arrange your category structure. By default categories sort by name.

Login as Member - Ever want to see how your site looks or functions from one of your members point of view? From the members profile page we have added a new option that allows the site creator to login as any user on the website with just one click, no emails or passwords needed. This function should come in really handy to better troubleshoot issues within your site structure and permissions as well as being about to walk a member through how to do something within your website! Due to the security sensitive nature of this function, this feature only works from the site creators account.

Manually Add Members to a group - We have seen this as a common requested feature. This should make it much easier to structure out your groups and further expands the functionality for this feature. To add a member go to the group members section of a group and start to type the name of the member you wish to add to a group into the box on that page.

We have a number of new features in development planned for release in the next few weeks.

If you have problems or issues related to the improvements in this update please make sure to report them via support ticket so we can correct those problems as soon as possible!